Bad Memories
by Oliver
Summary: Angel has to rescue a Jewish family from a concentration camp


Tommy Darpino  
  
May 6, 2001  
  
  
  
Disclaimer:  
  
I don't own the Angel series. It belongs to Joss Whedon and the WB Network.  
  
Disclaimer #2:  
  
This fanfic is intended to be an example of how to teach teenagers of the attrocities committed during the Holocaust using the Angel series as a pilot or vessel. This is not meant to offend or make fun of anyone who may have perished in or lived through the Holocaust. The characters Rick and Stan are only included to keep the teenage readers interested, because anyone who follows the Angel series will expect something of the paranormal in the plot. The Markowitzes were not actual people in the Holocaust.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~  
  
Bad Memories  
  
By Tommy Darpino  
  
Present day; Angel's office, Angel Investigations. Angel sat in his office, brooding as usual. He had a lot of guilt. Angel was a vampire who was cursed by gypsies and had his soul returned to him. You see, when you become a vampire, the demon takes over your body, but does not get your soul. The vampire may have the memmories, the habits, and the demeanour of the person who is dead, but it is not that person. They are left with no remorse, no conscience. However, Angel is a special case. Because he has his soul, He has a conscience, and remorse, leaving him to try and atone for the evil deeds he committed for one hundred and fifty years before his soul was returned to him. Now Angel lives in Los Angeles, helping the helpless, and trying to find redemption. Business had been slow lately. Today, Angel's feelings of guilt were plaguing him more than usual, because today was the aniversary of some of the most terrible things he had ever seen, and the death of the one little girl he was unable to save.  
  
* *  
  
September 1938; Munich, Germany. On a streetcorner, Angel sat in dank, smelly old clothing. His hair was matted, sticky, and knotted. He had been in Germany for three months now, and the growing hostility between the Jews and the Nazi German government had him very worried. Even though he knew there was nothing he could do, and it wasn't really his style to help people at that point, he wished there was some way he could help. But Angel was very weak. He only fed off a rat once a month, if that, because he could not bear the thought of hurting anyone or anything, no matter who or what they were.  
  
"Have a good night, Frank!" Adam Markowitz called to his coworker as he descended the stairs from the bakery at which he worked onto a nearly deserted Leerfeld street. The wind tousled his stringy redish hair as he began his walk home. As he got to the corner, he noticed what he assumed was a homeless man sitting on the curb. Being the goodhearted man that Adam was, He decided to offer the man a hot shower and a bed for the night. "Hello there, young man! How are you this fine September evening?"  
  
"Fine," the man replied, flatly.  
  
"I'm Adam Markowitz." The forty-year-old said. "What's your name, son?"  
  
"Angel." The man replied, with a bit of hostility.  
  
"Got a last name, there, Angel?"  
  
"No. Just Angel. Leave me alone."  
  
"Woah. Calm down there. I was just wondering if you had a place to stay?"  
  
"I get around." Angel replied.  
  
"Well if you'd like to come home with me and my family, my wife Rachel makes a mean spinach casserole. It puts me to sleep like a baby."  
  
"That's very kind of you, sir, but I couldn't impose."  
  
"Nonsense, Angel, you're comming home with me and that's final. I insist." Adam said, slapping him on the back as they walked toward his home.  
  
"But..." Angel attempted to protest, but was cut off.  
  
"No trouble, no trouble at all."  
  
"You'll love my wife and kids, Angel." Adam was saying as they approached his house. "A.J., my son, is nine. He plays peewee baseball. He hit two home runs this season. His team has a good chance at the championship. My daughter, Karen, is three. She loves to read. Anything and everything she can get her hands on." With that, they entered the house.  
  
"Honey, I'm home!" He yelled to his wife as they walked in.  
  
"Daddy!" His children cried as he walked in the door and embraced them.  
  
"Ow!" Angel cried as he tried to walk through the door, hitting the invisible barier that kept him from entering anyone's home unless he was invited in. Startled, Adam turned around.  
  
"What's the matter, Angel? Don't just stand there and be bashful, come in."  
  
"Thank you," Angel said as he walked in, rubbing the bruise on his forehead.  
  
"Kids," their father said, "This is Angel. Angel, these are my children, A.J. and Karen."  
  
"Wow. You're tall." A.J. said "How old are you, anyway?"  
  
"I'm... I'm very old." Angel replied uncomfortably.  
  
"Well how old are you really?" the little boy pressed.  
  
"Adam!" The older man scolded "Don't be rude to our guest. You know better than that."  
  
"Sorry, Papa."  
  
"Appologize to our guest. At once." He said, firmly.  
  
"Sorry, Angel."  
  
"Don't worry about it, Sport." Angel said uneasily. He was not used to all this human contact.  
  
"Daddy," Karen tugged on her father's sleave, "Will you read to me tonight?" In her hands was a white stuffed bunny with a bow tie and blue eyes. The bow tie was hanging off of it, showing wear and tear. She showed no interest in the guest at all.  
  
"Of course, sweetheart." Her father replied. "What would you like to hear tonight?" He asked tenderly.  
  
"Velveteen rabbit! Velveteen rabbit!" the little girl cried.  
  
"Karen, you know that story by heart."  
  
"I know, but it's my favorite, Papa!"  
  
"Okay, okay. Well can you at least say hi to daddy's friend Angel?"  
  
"Hi!" She said cheerfully.  
  
"Hi." Angel said with a half-smile. "What's your..." he began, but before he could finish the little girl had run off.  
  
"Sorry, Angel." Her father said.  
  
"Don't worry about it, Sir. It's quite all right."  
  
"Adam!" his wife called as she walked into the living room. "Who's this?" She asked.  
  
"Honey, this is my friend Angel. He'll be having dinner with us. Angel, this is my wife Rachel."  
  
"Will he be staying the night?" his wife asked.  
  
"Yes, he will."  
  
"How long will he be here? I'll get out the cot."  
  
"Just for the night."  
  
"You do this often?" Angel asked, surprised.  
  
"Yes, on a regular basis. I enjoy helping others."  
  
"That's very noble of you," Angel replied.  
  
"Well," Rachel said "The casserole is almost ready. I hope you're hungry, Angel."  
  
Angel walked through the living room into the kitchen and sat down.  
  
"So, Adam, how was your day at work, honey?"  
  
"Fine. We donated 300 loaves of bread to the homeless shelter today. God knows there's people in this community who need it more than we do."  
  
"Yes, I agree. Oh, sweetheart, before I forget, I will be volunteering at the hospital as a nurse again tomorrow. I won't be home for dinner. Do you think you can handle it?"  
  
"Of course. Enjoy yourself."  
  
"You guys volunteer a lot?" Angel asked.  
  
"Oh yes." Rachel replied. "Last year my husband helped design a homeless shelter two towns over."  
  
"Wow." Angel said. "That's surprising. There's not a lot of people around who do things like that."  
  
"Yes, well. We try to be the best that we can be." Rachel said as she got up to bring the casserole to the table.  
  
"You guys are Jewish?" Angel asked, noticing the torah on the fireplace in the living room.  
  
"Yes, we are. We're very proud of our Jewish heritage." Mr. Markowitz said as his wife returned to the table with the food. As the dinner ended, Angel helped clear the table and then told Mr. and Mrs. Markowitz, "Listen, this is very kind of you folks, and I enjoyed myself, but I really must go."  
  
"Are you sure you won't stay the night, Angel?" Mrs. Markowitz asked.  
  
"Thank you very much, but I'm not a morning person, and I do have a place to stay. I really must go."  
  
"Well where is it?" Adam asked, "I'll drive you there."  
  
"Thank you, but that's really not necessary. I do hope I see you guys soon, though." Angel said, as he turned to leave.  
  
"Us too, Angel. You really are a fine young man. I hope to see you again."  
  
"Angel! Wait!" Karen cried, running up behind him. "Will you read to me before you go?" He knelt down to the little girl's height and said "Sure, if you want me to, but I can't stay very long."  
  
"Thank you!" She cried, throwing her arms around him in a big hug.  
  
* *  
  
As the days and months wore on, Angel and the Markowitzes grew closer and closer. Angel found that he took a very unusual liking to this family, even though he knew he couldn't tell them his secret. However, the tensions between the Nazis and the Jews continued to grow, and were about to boil over.  
  
* *  
  
Evening of November 9th, 1938; Munich, Germany. Angel was once again at the Markowitzes for dinner. Mr. Markowitz was telling Angel how what Hitler and the Nazi party kept saying about the Jews worried him. He did not know how far the Nazis would take their predjudiced views.  
  
"I am very sick and tired of all the propaganda the Nazis are spreading. It is really starting to get to me and starting to affect some of my friends' self-esteem. The Nazis and Hitler just want someone to blame for how bad our economy is right now. Why would they blame us when we have some of the best businesses in Munich and all over Germany?"  
  
"I understand what you're saying, Adam," Angel said, casually, sipping from a glass of tea for show. "But there really isn't anything you can do."  
  
"Oh, there's something I can do, Angel. I am not going to let these mongrels' propaganda affect me or my family's attitude. We are going to stay optimistic and feel good about ourselves no matter what the Nazis do."  
  
WHAM! A loud crash was heard from the living room as a brick was thrown through the window.  
  
"What the hell?" Adam cried, startled, as he rose to see what it was.  
  
"Dirty Jew scum!" someone was shouting, as Angel and Adam went to the doorway to see what was going on. Neither of them could believe their eyes. It was like a prison riot. People screaming, being beaten in the streets. Synagogues and Jewish businesses up in flames.  
  
"Adam," Rachel asked, coming up behind her husband with their children in tow, "What's going on?"  
  
"Inside, Rachel. Now. This is dangerous."  
  
"Well what's..." she began, but at that moment a Nazi soldier punched Adam in the face and cried "Dirty Jew!"  
  
"Adam!" "Daddy!" his family cried in unison. Angel glared at the man, and had a very hard time resisting the urge to rip the man's throat out. "Get inside, everyone," he said, taking charge of the situation. Angel flung the door shut and propped a nearby chair up against it. "Karen! A.J.! Get in bed and cover up. Everything's fine."  
  
"But what about Daddy?" they asked.  
  
"Your father is fine, kids." their mother said reasuringly. "Angel is right. Everything's fine." The children went to their rooms, slightly frightened.  
  
While Rachel was treating Adam's bruises with alcohol, the telephone rang. "Angel, could you get that please?"  
  
Angel picked up the phone. "Hello?"  
  
"Adam?" Someone asked.  
  
"No. This is his friend Angel. What's wrong?"  
  
"Put Adam on the phone now, please."  
  
"All right. It's for you, Adam."  
  
"No! No! Not my livelihood." Adam cried as he hung up the phone.  
  
"What happened?" his wife asked.  
  
"My bakery. The butchers burned it down." Adam said, as he sank to his knees, sobbing. Angel looked at the man, and his face became a mixture of sorrow, fear, and anger as he watched his friend sob.  
  
* *  
  
1941; Munich, Germany. Angel wandered the streets aimlessly. He had heard that the Markowitzes had been deported from the ghetto to a place called Sobeebor, a concentration camp. As he walked, his foot hit something soft and plushy, and as he glanced down and realized what it was, he decided that he was going to get them out. As he saw the all-too-familiar velveteen rabit that belongd to Karen, He knew that no matter what it took, he had to get the Markowizes to safety, even if it was the last thing he did.  
  
* *  
  
1941; A boxcar on its way to Poland. Adam Markowitz surveyed his surroundings. He couldn't believe that he'd been in this boxcar for four days already. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of people, standing together. It was severely overcrowded. The smell of hot sweat and other offensive odors was unbearable. He couldn't believe that all they had for a bathroom was a bucket. His family had long since fallen asleep. But while Adam stood there he pondered the day that the Nazis had roughly taken his family out of the ghetto. They had pulled their hair and beat them up as they put them in the boxcar. He had no idea where he was going, and he was pretty sure he didn't want to know. He simply stood there and wept because he couldn't control what was happening to his family. Meanwhile, Angel had been hot on the boxcar's trail. Because he was a vampire, he had a very keen sense of smell, and was careful not to follow in daylight.  
  
* *  
  
1941; Ariving at Sobeebor, Poland. "Everyone out!" Someone shouted cheerfully, as they opened the boxcar after a total of five days. People stumbled out, tired and hungry.  
  
"I have a bad feeling about this place," Adam said to his wife as they got out of the boxcar, Karen in her mother's arms, A.J. nervously holding his father's hand.  
  
"Hand me all your luggage!" A Nazi soldier said cheerfully, with a fake smile, and handed them a luggage ticket. "Don't loose your luggage ticket!" the soldier reminded.  
  
"I'll say it again, I have a bad feeling about this place," Adam repeated to his wife.  
  
"Everyone in a single-file line!" A Nazi soldier shouted over all of the new arivals.  
  
"To the right, to the left," A Nazi soldier said to the people in front of the Markowitzes.  
  
"A.J.!" his father whispered. "When they ask your age, say you are fourteen."  
  
"Okay, Dad." A.J. whispered back.  
  
"You there, boy," A Nazi soldier asked when the Markowitzes finally got their chance in line. "How old are you?" he asked.  
  
"Fourteen." A.J. lied.  
  
"Fine. You and your father to the right, to do work. Your mother and your sister to the left, to take a shower."  
  
"I'll see you again," Adam promised his wife with a quick kiss on the lips.  
  
"I love you." She said.  
  
"You too." her husband replied. "I love you as well, my darling daughter."  
  
"I love you, Daddy." Karen said, tears streaming down her face, still in her mother's arms as they walked away.  
  
"Wait, John." Another Nazi officer said. "Take the girl to the showers. But I want the woman for special purposes." he said, winking.  
  
* *  
  
Later that evening; Sobeebor. Adam was laying in a hardwood bunkbed with no sheets and no blankets. His hair had been shaved, and he'd only had bread and water to eat all day. He couldn't believe the condition of the other inmates. They were skinny, some barely able to walk. The people - his people - were being treated like animals. A.J. was sleeping in between his father and two other men on the same bunk.  
  
"Get in there, you Jew witch!" Someone yelled harshly as they threw a woman into the bunking area, roughly. He closed the door and left. The woman laid there sobbing, and Adam instantly recognized that it was his wife. He instantly went to her.  
  
"Adam. Adam." She was sobbing. "You can't love me."  
  
"Yes I can, Rachel. I will always love you."  
  
"No. I've been unfaithful." She said, still sobbing.  
  
"No. Not you. Not your fault. It's those evil Nazis' fault. Not yours, my darling. I love you with all my heart." He kissed her on the mouth and held her and stroked her bald head as his wife sobbed.  
  
"Adam!" someone called from the shadows. "Rachel!"  
  
"Angel?" Adam said. "Did they get you, too?"  
  
"No. I'm fine. I'm here to get you out. Get the children."  
  
"But the guards..." Rachel said.  
  
"They're dead." Angel said. "Now come on, get A.J. and - "  
  
"What do we have here?" One of two Nazi soldiers said from the doorway.  
  
Angel turned and vamped out, keeping his back to the Markowitzes.  
  
"Ooh, scary," one of them said. "But not as scary as us." and they vamped out. "Got turned last night. And guess what, pal. We're goona kill you."  
  
Angel immediately sprang into action, kicking, punching, jabbing. He easily overpowered the two vampires and ripped loose a wooden floorboard and drove it into their hearts. They instantly turned to dust, as did all vampires. Angel let his face return to human form and turned back to the Markowitzes. "Get the kids." Angel said. "We're getting out of here."  
  
"Angel." Adam said. "There's something you must know. Karen's dead."  
  
"I'm sorry," Angel said, "but I can't worry about that right now. Is A.J. all right?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Wake him up. I'm getting the rest of you out of here."  
  
* *  
  
"Angel," A.J. asked as they were walking out of the concentration camp that was scattered with the dead bodies of Nazi soldiers that Angel had killed on the way in, "How come we only see you at night?"  
  
"I like the night life." Angel said.  
  
Angel led the Markowitzes to safety, said goodbye, and wished them luck.  
  
"Thank you so much, Angel." The Markowitzes said. "You don't know how much this means to us. We can't thank you enough."  
  
"Take care of yourself, Adam." Angel said.  
  
"I will. You too, Angel. Thank you."  
  
"Good luck, Rachel." Angel said as he embraced her. "Sorry I couldn't save her."  
  
"It's all right. You tried."  
  
Angel knelt down to A.J.'s height and said "Stay tough, A.J. You'll do something really great someday."  
  
"Thanks, Angel." He said, punching him in the arm. "So how old are you, really?" A.J. asked.  
  
"Two hundred and forty. Good luck, guys." Angel said as he walked away.  
  
* *  
  
Present day; Angel's office, Angel Investigations. Angel winced at the memory. He still couldn't forgive himself for not being able to save Karen. And he couldn't even begin to describe the horrors that he saw on the night of broken glass and in the Sobeebor concentration camp. Angel reached into his top desk drawer and pulled out two newspaper clippings. The first one said 'Rachel Markowitz. Died, 1990, of a stroke at her home in southern California.' The second newspaper clipping said 'Adam Markowitz, Sr. Died, of a stroke, in 1993 at the University of Pennsylvania.' Angel opened his bottom desk drawer and pulled out a book. The book cover read Survivors of Hell by Adam Markowitz. Underneath the book was an old, worn stuffed velveteen rabbit. Angel looked at the clock. twelve hours untill sunrise. Plenty of time, he thought.  
  
* *  
  
A few hours later; a southern California graveyard. Angel stood in front of a gravestone. The gravestone read: Karen Markowitz; June 23, 1935- March 14, 1941.  
  
"I'm sorry I couldn't save you." Angel said. "But I believe I have something that belongs to you." He took out the old velveteen rabit and placed it on her grave. As Angel left, he could have sworn he heard a little girl say, "I forgive you, Angel." 


End file.
